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Of Magic and Dungeons [IC/PG-16/Accepting]

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As the skeleton hound moved to attack Robin's chest, the "dread pirate" reacted in turn, dropping the gun in her hand to instead fill her hand with magical fire. A ball of fire that she promptly drove into the ribs of the hound, before giving the beast a push and releasing the fireball from her grasp, kicking it back enough that Robin would be only trivially singed by her fireball at worst, but she definitely felt the surge of heat from the blast.

“Keep moving, uh, that way!”

"Aye-aye!" Picking up her guns from the floor, Robin hurried back to her feet as best she could with her good hand barely being usable. It would definitely be harder to aim her guns like this, but actually throwing fireballs was definitely out of the question in these circumstances. Guns it was. Putting away any non-magical firearms, Robin resolved to only use the runelock pistol if her aim was going to be less than ideal. It would be a shame to waste perfectly good bullets, after all.

"May wanna mind yer head, Chris!" Robin called out, taking aim as best she could manage with her bad hand, and firing a flaming shot at one of the skeletons not presently occupied with the boy. While it wasn't as clean of a hit as she would have liked, Robin was still able to land a shot on one of the other skeletons, blowing off one side of its upper body in the process. It did seem to drop the walking bag of bones, at least.

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Lana was glad to have finally been done with the pack of dogs that had try to maim the group. As such, she was very not glad to suddenly hear the scratching sounds of more approaching from beyond the fog wall. Lana didn’t know how many there were really, just that it was a lot and far far more then she wanted to deal with - which was zero anyway but that was besides the point - and so she was all to willing to follow Chris as he called for the group to start running. 
 

Lana brought up the rear of the group, not because she wanted to make sure someone was covered in case of sudden skeleton attack from behind but because she physically could not move faster than anyone else in the party with her gnawed foot. Pain was clear across her face with each step that she took and her ever present frustration certainly didn’t subside with the final patrol of skeletons getting in their way. Chris, being in the front, had come to blows with them first and managed to hold it off well enough. With the two on either side of it, Lana moved to the one that Ziun had fended off and brought her axe up. With a loud cry she cleaved through half of the skeletons head, before swinging her axe upward in an attempt to finish off the rest of it. 

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There was only one, visible, skeleton left standing. Unfortunately for Chris it was the one attacking him. With Estelle on his back it was hard for Chris to really fight back properly and so the skeleton managed to strike him across the face with a heavy blow. Afterwards it attempted to grab for the girl at his back to drag her off of him.

As a whole the group had gotten farther along and, they would notice, there were more signs that they were near a wall. And, even more than that, they could barely make out what seemed to be some sort of opening which possibly led to the exit of this floor.

However in front of it, sitting down yet still visible through the fog, was another hound. This one was twice the size of the others and, as soon as they got near it, it stood up and looked ready to pounce.

The sounds from before continued and the group would notice the vague form of at least a dozen hounds getting close enough that soon they would be upon them.

Spoiler

No map because basically just....one skeleman near Chris and then the one XL hound, with the other hounds spread out to the "south". Do or die time, make it through the XL hound, destroy it, or disable it, whatever, and get to the exit this round or there will be a dozen hounds on you this time in two weeks. Really wanted to get through this floor this month but at least the end is in sight.

 

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If Chris hadn’t been carrying Estellise with him, he probably would have been able to dodge the skeleton’s attack, or, if he had to get hit, he probably wouldn’t have stumbled as hard as he did, but he was, and he did. There was a sense that he was going to keep doing so, too. It wasn’t like he was about to throw Estellise to the ground or suddenly gain pounds of muscle to help him not react as hard to stuff like this. His off-hand instinctively went to his face to inspect the wound and he felt a trickle of blood run down his cheek.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Chris said, more to himself than Estellise. He added an extra swear under his breath as he did so and really hoped she didn’t hear that part, but there wasn’t time to apologize. As soon as his stance had steadied again, the skeleton was upon him. It wasn’t going for his face, though, it was going for Estellise, grabbing at her arms draped around his shoulders and trying to yank the girl off of him.

“What? No, you can’t-” Chris yanked his shoulder back. “You can’t have her. For a lot of reasons, actually. I need to get into her family’s library, for one, and before that even I’d really like her to fix this cut you just gave me so I can kill more of your friends as best I can. But the biggest reason…”

It was time to go on the offensive. Chris stepped back and drew his sword back even further. “…The biggest reason is she’s my friend! And protecting one’s friends is what people do!”

With all the extra weight, he only had one shot at this. “My name is Christopher Ellworth, heir to the Ellworth estate,” he said. “There’s not a lot of honor to my name but I swear on whatever it’s worth, you will not harm her!”

He stepped forward and brought his sword around in a high swing. It wasn’t truly overhead with Estellise’s arms in the way but he adapted by leaning to the side so that he could drive the sword into the skeleton’s skull. It didn’t stop there, though. His sword glanced off the skeleton’s spine and kept moving downwards, crashing deep into the shoulder blade.

It probably would have kept going too, if the skeleton didn’t fall apart first, leaving just him, panting as more skeletal dogs, including one big one, formed around them. “Yeah, that means you too,” Chris said, trudging forward. “You’re not getting her either.”

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Things were going from bad to worse on this floor. Still beset by hounds and men of bones alike, a new foe had entered the fray alongside them. Another hound, but quite a bit larger than the others so far. There wasn't really time to sit here and dilly-dally, more so than on the other floors Robin had seen up to now. With such a large creature though, Robin didn't fancy the odds of Chris or Lana just running at it without some sort of supporting fire. That would be her job, then, quite literally. Robin took aim with what good hand she had left, trying her best to aim right between the eyes with her off-hand.

She'd fought pirates, navymen, stormy seas, and worse! Like hell she was going to let a dog who left its flesh at home get between her and that Spark!

“There’s not a lot of honor to my name but I swear on whatever it’s worth, you will not harm her! Yeah, that means you too. You’re not getting her either.”

"That's the spirit! Now, would you mind setting her down and leave the protecting to me? Even if I'm down an arm, Ziun and I should be more than enough to guard one person while you and your axe-swinging cohort chop that beast up so we can all get the hell out of here. I'll even give you an opening."

And so, she pulled the trigger, blasting a shot of flame in the hound's direction. A shot that the hound seemed to brace itself for, and a shot it ducked down at the impact of. The hound seemed to shake off the shock - if skeletons could feel such a thing anyway - of the fireball it had just taken in the same way a normal dog would shake off water after coming inside from a rainy day. But still the creature moved. That wasn't what Robin wanted to see at all.

Once again, Robin filled the gun up with flames. Rather than simply shoot like before, though, Robin brought up her usual dominant hand that had been injured earlier. She wasn't in a state to use it for gunplay, and definitely was't going to do some accurate fireball-slinging with it either, but there was something even a wounded hand could do. Robin filled her empty hand with fire, and threw it. Rather than aim at the hound, however, she aimed just in front of it, hoping to distract it, if only for a brief enough moment that an opening for Robin's more up-close-and-personal cohorts to get closer without being the center of the big hound's attention.

Though Robin had trouble making it out from across the flames, it succeeded to some extent. The hound had stopped, and did some sort of hop to the side to try and avoid the fire. Turning toward Lana and Chris, Robin made the call to arms for her allies.

"Now! No quarter!"

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With Lana having managed to get rid of the skeleton in her path, there was only two things left in their path. One, the skeleton that was engaged with Chris. Two, an even bigger skeletal dog that had barred their way into the door. As Chris continued to fight the skeleton, the girl felt a wave of adrenaline push through her as the he managed to fell the skeleton and made his emotions loud and clear for everyone to hear. "That's right! I'm not gonna let you stupid dogs sink your teeth into anyone else!" The girl was ready to charge head first into battle, but stopped as a blast of fire hit in front of her immediately. Looking towards Robin, who had conjured up another fireball, the girl gripped her axe tighter as the second was lobbed and Robin issued the command to go. 

"Got it!" The girl ran forward as fast as her legs would take her. Gritting her teeth, feeling the loud protests of her foot as the holes in it continued to impede her movement. Yet she still pressed forward as fast as she could, raising her axe up overhead. Moving to intercept the large skeleton dog after it had side hopped the girl let out a shout as she brought her axe down towards its skull. 

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"That's the spirit! Now, would you mind setting her down and leave the protecting to me? Even if I'm down an arm, Ziun and I should be more than enough to guard one person while you and your axe-swinging cohort chop that beast up so we can all get the hell out of here. I'll even give you an opening."

"You flatter me, Dread Pirate, with your thoughts of me being highly to be able to guard someone..." Ziun huffed, keeping near Estelle and Robin for a moment. "But truth be told...I don't think I'm doing much at this present ti-...hang on!" He moved slightly, taking his rapier and slashing at a few of the smaller skeletal hounds to their south, making sure his allies weren't struck at more. "...now where was I? ...oh right! I don't believe I'm doing much at this present time. After all, my skills are simply music playing and illusions...rarely have I ever needed to fight."

Another few slashes at another skeletal hound, continuing to make sure they were safe. "Alas, perhaps if I stayed and continued my studies at the Bards College in Steelhorn, maybe I could've learned how to do other things like my teacher could...then again he was also an elf...which probably played a heavy part in what he could do, but I digress!" he huffed again, seeming like he was talking everyone's ear off. "If I may suggest, once Chris and Lana take care of the big ones...we make like birds and fly the coop...just push straight through all the dogs that may come when we exit."

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With the hounds at their heels, and now that they could see there was over a dozen of the beasts coming their way, the group didn't have much time at all before they were totally overwhelmed.

The larger hound proved to be quite nimble in dodging Robin's spell but that did pull it away from the doorway in the process. Still they wouldn't be able to just waltz right past without it attacking. Before it could do anything, however, Lana came in with a heavy swing that cut into the thing's skull. Slicing through and even tearing off a chunk of the hound's jaw in the process. The injury was a heavy one, though the hound stayed standing, and was delivered in such a way the beast buckled somewhat from the force.

Perhaps, had they not been in danger of being swarmed by hounds, which would have already been on them had they not taken defensive measures, they would be able to handle the large beast.

As it stood the group took the chance to rush past it and into the entrance way.

The moment they did it was as though they hadn't just been in a battlefield. Everything went silent and they found themselves in a familiar stairway.

They were able to catch their breaths for a few minutes, though the dungeon seemed to after some time practically pull them towards continuing, and it was enough that Estelle was able to come back to her senses somewhat and dole out some healing to those who needed it most. Not quite enough to fix everyone up fully but enough to keep them going.

 


 

The area they found themselves in next was still covered in fog. While it wasn't quite as foggy as the previous it still was more than the first floor they had entered today. The ground was soft, marshy, and they would be able to tell their footing wasn't quite as steady as it was before. Stretched across the way was a large number of tombstones of fairly average size that broke through the fog.

Near what seemed to be the center of the space was a mausoleum. The stout, cube-shaped, stone building stood about ten feet high and all the entrances to it looked to be entirely sealed off. Instead of doorways they were just smooth, black, stone at each side.

Unlike before they could see most of the enemies that lurked in this place.

Around a dozen humanoid creatures moved about. At first glance they seemed human but it was clear within seconds they weren't so. Their grey skin, in places rotting and with holes or deep wounds across their body, and their glassy, vacant, eyes indicated that these were in fact zombies.

None of them were armed but as soon as the group got closer to any of them they would turn and shamble for them with the intent to feed on their flesh.

But these weren't the only creatures to be found. From where the group stood they could see a pair of strange monsters. They resembled large, two to three feet across, eyes that floated through the air. Strange, reddish, tendrils came from the back of the creatures and swayed as they moved.


Spoiler

3 of you probably know exactly what the monsters look like

Anyway, so yeah basically if you want a bit of time between floors go ahead and do some stuff, just be sure to let your intention known so people know there will be something.

Estelle will, until such time doggo returns, be essentially NPC-fied. As to not lose out on a party member I will allow Skaia and radio to, in their posts (though only one per round unless its only simple actions) write out her actions. Only actions though not dialogue and the like.

Map

 

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Chris had to spend a while in the intermediary zone between floors and ensured everyone else did the same. They had to revive Estellise, for one, and benefit from her enchantments. Had she heard Chris’ battle-ragged oath to return her protection? The implications of what he had said hadn’t fully sunk in yet, even if he was aware of them on some level. It was a problem for future Chris. Current Chris’ problem was if this was what floor two of what was probably a five-floor affair was like, what horrors awaited them on the next three?

Also, he hoped that, despite the rumors about chicks digging scars, Estellise’s healing magic was enough to keep the wound the skeleton had slapped him with from scarring. He was too young to be dealing with the consequences of his actions, or, more consequences than the ones he was already dealing with. And he hoped that he wouldn’t be too exhausted from all this for the nighttime activities he had planned, though that was dipping into future Chris’ problems again.

He touched his cheek. It didn’t feel like there was scarring, but he did feel different in some indescribable way. It was probably nothing. Maybe he’d say something when they got out of the dungeon. For now, that meant going further down.

The next floor was marshy in a way that made Chris glad he wasn’t riding a horse or anything. He hadn’t been all that into cavalry growing up (though his parents had insisted he at least know how, that he could get on and off a horse without injuring either himself or the animal), but especially here, he needed both feet on the ground if he wanted to get anywhere. Elsewhere in the dungeon were creatures with no feet at all, which didn’t feel very fair. Those cyclopean creatures supported a horde of shambling corpses, probably just as threatening as the skeletons of the previous floors, but he prioritized the new.

Chris checked the rest of the party. Estellise was already drawing up her light bow. He pointed to the mass of creatures to the right of the structure. “That way first, I think,” he said. “It’s got less of them. Keep an eye on the other ones, though, don’t want them sneaking up behind.”

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Smashing her axe into the thing's skull, Lana was ready to continue hammering away at it until she looked to see everyone running past and towards the exit of the floor. Frustrated and wanting to take out more of her fury against the large skeletal dog monster, Lana settled for just shouting, "yeah, take that!" And did a cross between running and hobbling down the stairs, avoiding the pack of dogs that were coming to attack her. Once in their transit, Lana took the time to take a breather and get patched up by their now once more active healer. The girl had her face feeling good as new, the blood now no longer dripping from her nose and her head feeling in much less pain. And though her foot was certainly better, walking was still a bit of a pain to her, feeling like it hadn't fully closed up and was still a bother. All the same, it was certainly an improvement over what had happened before. 

"Ew gross." The next floor, however, had no such improvement. The fog was still present here, a weather condition Lana was steadily growing to hate more and more, and the enemies that she could see were of a different kind then what they had been fighting before. Sure, there were no skeletons, but she was starting to think that she would much rather take a collection of bones over walking rotting flesh any day. And while it was certainly an upside that there were no skeletal dogs, the floating eyeball she thought was significantly far more disgusting. The girl shivered at the thought of what would happen if she brought her axe down on one of them, but decided to try to put that off as future Lana's problem.

Lana nodded at Chris's assessment, moving in the direction saying, "yeah. I don't want to get strangled by those things," the girl grimaced, remembering her difficulties on the floor. "I'll take the lead, and uh, just make sure I don't get ganged up on or something." The girl gripped her axe tightly, walking forward slowly and getting ready for the attention of the creature's to turn to her at any moment. 

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Next floor! On the way down, Robin received some quick healing to patch up her arm, bringing the "dread pirate" back up to full firing capacity, though not necessarily full health. The next floor down was still foggy, but now marshy as well. Lovely. More importantly, the skeletons here weren't mere skeletons. They had flesh on their bones! Those were zombies! Gross. Split into two groups, the hordes of the undead - and a pair of floating eyeballs as well - shambled about the room, though there were notably less of them on the starboard side.

“That way first, I think,” Chris suggested. “It’s got less of them. Keep an eye on the other ones, though, don’t want them sneaking up behind.”

"Yeah. I don't want to get strangled by those things. I'll take the lead, and uh, just make sure I don't get ganged up on or something."

"I'll cover the two of ye and watch that lot over there," Robin nodded, keeping a wary eye on the other zombie-plus-eyeball group across the room. "Bet these fellows burn well."

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As Robin watched the left-hand side she would see that the zombies seemed to be meandering around. Some drew closer but it seemed to be entirely random how they moved. The floating eye for its part didn't seem particularly interested in them either. It drifted closer but it didn't make much of a move beside that. It seemed more focused on one of the zombies on its side that had gotten closest than on the group themselves.

The other side, however, was much more active. The floating eye got nearer, though still hung back, and as it watched the group the zombies lurched to a halt, twisted in their direction, then, letting out groans of varying volume and timing, they started shuffling in a straight path towards them. Due to her having gotten closer than the others the two nearest zombies didn't have far to go to reach Lana. When they got near they moved ever so slightly faster as they raised their arms and went for her.

At the same time a ray of dark energy shot from the eye in Lana's direction.

Spoiler

What does the ray do? f around and find out I guess.

Map

 

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New room, new problems...as expected. But while some of the same type of problems remained, for example the skeletons...a new problem emerged...in the form of two floating eyes. It was a revolting sight with the floating eyes that just stared into one's soul, it honestly made Ziun's stomach churn at the sight. "...charming..." he muttered.

“That way first, I think...It’s got less of them. Keep an eye on the other ones, though, don’t want them sneaking up behind.”
"yeah. I don't want to get strangled by those things. I'll take the lead, and uh, just make sure I don't get ganged up on or something."
"I'll cover the two of ye and watch that lot over there. Bet these fellows burn well."

"A fantastic plan thus far..." Ziun commented, already enjoying the thought of this. However...

The other side with one of the eyes made some sort of noise and a few zombies, who were now shuffling straight towards them, began to move. If he had acted faster, he was planning to use some illusion magic and actually keep them hidden in order to make it through. Perhaps he could still do it, so long as no other surprises were ha-... A ray of dark energy shot towards Lana from the eye...of course there was a surprise hidden in this room still. "Perhaps a bit too close for comfort, everyone...let's try and back up slightly..." he said, already trying to cast an illusion to cover himself and the party to make sure they were hidden.

"I may suggest a hasty retreat to the center as quickly as possible...lest we have another situation like the last floor...on top of the eye shooting whatever magic it has going on." Ziun said in a hushed voice, motioning with his head to the center of the room.

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Estellise had almost fired an arrow when Ziun spoke up, and Chris had to grab at her bow to keep her from following through with the shot. It didn’t quite work -- the bow was made of magic, of course, and he wasn’t exactly magic-attuned -- but he managed to wordlessly get the point across all the same. Ziun had a good idea. He could get behind any idea that involved sneaking and hiding, given that those were two of his best skills. Ziun even had the illusion magic to back it up. It even worked on Chris a little; if he weren’t paying attention, he probably wouldn’t have spotted his teammates behind him.

It did not, however, seem to work on Lana, who had to deal with an energy blast from one of the floating eyes in their way. As the illusion took hold, Chris noticed that most of the zombies had shifted their focus to the sole visible human remaining as well. A more selfish Chris might have kicked Lana over to one side, to give everyone more space to maneuver where Ziun was pointing, but he was trying to be better about things. He could just take advantage of their distraction and trust Lana to take care of herself.

At the same time, that was a lot of zombies to suddenly have to deal with all by one’s lonesome, not even factoring in the floating eyes. There had to be something he could do to help. “Go around me,” he said to the other illusory members of the group, keeping his voice low. “Lana, I think if I actually swing something the illusion’s not going to work on me, but I’m going to try to trip this one on your left, so maybe you can take advantage of that.” He moved over to the side of the zombie in question and held his sword low and ready. “I’m also looking for more of whatever magic that was because there’s definitely more where that came from. Hit the deck if you hear me scream something, I guess.

“Keep following Ziun,” he added, “and definitely remember to keep moving.”

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“Go around me. I’m also looking for more of whatever magic that was because there’s definitely more where that came from. Hit the deck if you hear me scream something, I guess. Keep following Ziun, and definitely remember to keep moving.”

The boy had a solid plan of action. Stay on the move, try to stay hidden, don't play the full party's hand all at once. Robin could certainly agree to that, but she opted out of any sort of verbal confirmation. Illusion magic was finicky stuff in her experience, and she wasn't going to chance anything if she could help it. Instead, she gave the lad a nod and a quick thumbs-up, creeping through the area between him and the wall, trying to keep her distance from the action at large. If she could get close enough to that eye, which she suspected to be a much greater problem than the zombies shambling around, she could probably have an easier time taking it out. Less distance between gun and target meant less time to dodge, after all.

However, this plan did come with the tradeoff that Robin didn't have much in the way of offensive options for the time being. The best she could do was keep her runelock pistol at the ready, and additionally unholster a regular one to try and frontload as much firepower as possible for when it was time to shoot the eye full of holes.

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As Lana made her way forward, the undead naturally noticed the girl and started to make their way towards her. The girl had figured this would be the case, and got herself ready for their advance only to look towards the incredibly disgusting floating eyeball in the room. It, as well, was looking at her. And then its stare turned into a beam of dark energy, causing Lana to yelp and leap southward to avoid. "These guys can also do magic?" The girl questioned, with the implication that she found this to be unfair in her tone. Though thinking more on it she didn't really know how a giant eye would fight otherwise. 

As Ziun went to work his magic, the girl saw that the zombies were still advancing. And still moving towards her. "Alright, that didn't seem to work." The girl kept her stance ready, then hearing Chris's plan as it seemed that he and the rest were in fact hidden. She continued not have a good understanding of how magic worked, or why it didn't work on her, but she just nodded along figuring that things would work out last time. "I'll scream too if something goes wrong." Then, continuing to move along with the rest of the group, the girl readied her axe in order to follow up with a swing to the creature's head when Chris tripped it. 

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Lana's axe came down easily on the stumbling zombie's head. She felt the impact, softer than other heads she had split, as her axe cut through the monster's head cleanly. As it lost its head the body keeled over and landed with a wet plop into the marshy ground beneath them. The other zombie didn't seem to care about this as it lunged for Lana immediately after, the shambling creature having a slight boost of speed as it decided to attack.

The other three zombies nearby continued to shamble forward. All of them heading directly for Lana as she was the only thing they could see at the moment. They seemed to be mindless yet were so honed in on Lana that one could easily mistake it for focus.

The eye, seeming much more aware, seemed to hang back behind the middle zombie of the trio. It too did not notice the others yet something about the way the singular eyeball moved back and forth made it seem it knew something was wrong.

Some sort of red-tinted mist began to form in the area around it, stretching to where the trio of zombies were, in a roughly circular field. Said mist moved as it did and, while it didn't reach Lana, the creature was slowly following behind one of the zombies and the mist followed with.

Off on the other side, if anyone checked, one of the zombies was getting nearer. However the eye on that end moved forward and the zombie stopped advancing and slowly began to move back towards the left-hand group of zombies.

Spoiler

I imagine the lunging to work sort of like this, where it gets just a bit faster right before the attack.

Map

Will def need info for what you do next, especially as the mist gets nearer. At very least will need to be more specific in your posts on what you'll be doing. More might be revealed depending what you do/where you go/etc.

 

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The further they moved into the room, the weirder Chris felt. He was used to having to try to not be seen, but even when he tripped that zombie he hadn’t been noticed while under Ziun’s illusion. The monsters just kept acting like Lana was the only one there. It was uncanny.

That didn’t mean the monsters didn’t pull out new surprises, of course. The zombies were quicker than expected when they wanted to be, and one of the eyes pulled out some new kind of magic that spread a red fog out in front of them. That was another part of the weird. Normally, he’d have to run headfirst into one of those things to draw out whatever tricks they were hiding, maybe even get hit with it. Now, he was still reacting, but in a different sort of way. The eye was the one causing the most issues? He motioned for Estellise, and the mage took a few steps forward and shot an arrow cutting through the mist, striking the eye right in the… eye. It wasn’t quite enough to kill the thing, but it did nearly knock it to the ground.

When it came back up, though, it was able to focus back on the mage. It didn’t do anything, but Chris realized the attack had been enough to draw attention past Ziun’s illusion. He swore under his breath, though if anything was going to see past anything, it probably would be the giant eye, wasn’t it? He had other, more immediate problems anyway. A zombie was moving around to flank Lana and, when he looked to the rest of the group’s flank as well, he saw another zombie coming around there too. “Robin,” he mouthed at that one, since she was closest to it. By that logic, that meant he had to deal with the one about to attack Lana while she was busy with another one, though.

He ran up and cut the zombie’s head off in a single, clean stroke. But this far up, this close to the mist, two things happened. First, he could see around the black box in the middle now, and there were more monsters than he’d originally expected -- at least one more eye and several more zombies. The second was his visceral reaction to that additional knowledge. More? They couldn’t fight more. They’d all get torn apart while still fighting the first wave. No, better to get out while they still could. The dungeon would never be completed, but at least he’d be alive.

Chris jumped back, back out of the mist, and sprinted a couple steps before stopping to catch his breath. He’d been hyperventilating and the run hadn’t helped. It was enough to get him doubled over, dropping his sword and clutching his stomach. Only then did his vision clear. No, obviously they could do this. He’d just cut a zombie’s head clean off, what else did he have to prove? He was still a little shaken, but he was able to turn back around and say, “Don’t, uh, don’t go in that red stuff. Also, there’s more back there, so watch out,” before returning to the fray.

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A simple, yet effective plan. A casting of invisibility on him and his allies in order to make a move out towards the exit. It took him a while to really think through this, but he was glad it finally kicked in. It was probably because Ziun didn't want to rely too much on his illusion magic without the use of his music, after all, illusionists were seen as bad anyway. But nevertheless, the bard came through.

Unfortunately, now Chris and Lana were out of the cover he had made, leaving only him and the dread pirate. Ziun cursed under his breath, trying to get the next plan of action. What could Ziun the Illusionist do this time in order to keep his newfound allies out of the line of fire and sight? He kept thinking, trying to survey the area and situation to the best of his ability.

Wait...keep them out of the line of sight? That's it...if I can get something distracting to the others...yes! Ziun thought, a smile forming on his face. With a slight shake of his hands, the young man began to turn slightly towards the area behind most of the zombies and even the eye. Once he found the right spot, he made his move... If the others took notice, they would see a visage of Ziun slowly appearing in from the nothingness...just popping into existence. Once it did, it began to pull out it's lute... Now...for the next part of the plan...don't fail me now... he thought, pulling out his own lute and he started strumming it.

However, the sound never came from the lute that the real Ziun had in his hands...no, it came from the illusory bard. Then, the illusory bard opened it's mouth...

BGM

Sweet dreams are born o' this
Who am I to sow displease
I travel'd the world
And its dangerous seas
O! The common folks are in seeking
Some desire to use thee
Some have want to get used by thee
Some hath want to mistreat thee  
Some wouldn't take pleasure where torture be...

Ziun smirked, knowing this would be enough of a ruckus and distraction for the opposition to take notice of. He also figured Chris and Lana would take this as a sign to get back in cover and they could continue to towards the exit. He glanced towards Robin, and proceeded to mouth: "The moment the two get in, we'll keep moving...I'll hold it as long as I can." Nevertheless, the bard and illusory bard was getting into this little distracting performance as best they could...after all, their lives were at stake.

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Having shot the eyeball already, and it still standing, Estelle had opted to fire yet another arrow at the eyeball creature. The monster, however, was both quite aware of its assailant as well as quite nimble. As the arrow was let loose, the eyeball floated to the side, avoiding the arrow and putting itself behind one of the zombies, using that creature as cover. As the distraction from Ziun started, though, that zombie and the other in the mist seemed to turn their attention towards it. 

Lana's faced scrunched up in disgust as she felt the axe sink into the soft flesh of the zombies head. Splitting heads wasn't something she found an enjoyable feeling in general, but feeling like she had just slashed through an overripe watermelon only added to the grossness of the action and creature that she was fighting against. Pulling her axe out of its head, the girl saw that another zombie was moving towards her, starting to go from its little shamble into a lunge. Lana quickly choked up her axe and recklessly swung at the creature, digging her blade into the side of the zombie but not deterring its advance at all. Letting go of her weapon, the zombie clearly now getting in range, the girl reached for her hand axe but was unable to pull it out in time. Raising her free hand up, the girl grabbed onto the zombie face to try to push it away as it had grabbed her. "Get off, get off, get off!" The girl was so busy with the zombie trying to maul her that she barely registered the sudden song playing, left more confused then anything by it. 

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Lana had now been grabbed by skeletons and zombies both. Neither were pleasant but, at least with the skeleton, all they did was grab. Their hands felt sharply painful due to the bone but the zombie that was holding onto her didn't simply try and crush her with its grip, though it felt as though it tried that too. Instead the creature opened its mouth, showing the rotted and jagged teeth inside, and went in to chomp down on Lana's neck.

As Ziun's magic worked its magic the other two zombies started to shuffle towards the loud noise. If they paid attention they'd notice that the other zombies seemed to be drawn that way but, looks from the floating eyes near them caused them to resume their aimless shambling.

In fact they saw something similar with the eye they were battling. As the zombie near to it began to go in that direction the floating creature's eyelid widened and there was some sort of brief flash and the zombie halted in its tracks before turning back to the group. The eye followed close behind. Using it both as a shield and herding it towards Estellise. The mist crept closer and very nearly overwhelmed the mage girl so she began to step backwards to avoid it. Though directly behind her was the mausoleum.

Spoiler

Map

To be clear the other zombie, 7, is still shuffling off towards the orange star that is the illusion

Also in case couldn't tell if you get into the mist you will suffer an intense fear and have a desire to run away which goes away a bit after leaving said mist.

 

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They were in danger of getting stuck again. Chris could still remember how that had turned out on the previous floor. The red mist was untouchable and created a sort of choke point trapping them between it and the mausoleum in the center of the room if they wanted to proceed the way they’d started. Thankfully, none of the enemies seemed to be taking advantage of it, they were either apathetic to fighting not in their section of the room or they were on the defensive. The eye in the mist in particular was using one of the zombies as a shield, a fact the zombie either didn’t have the brains to realize or the will to disagree with.

He saw Estellise raise her bow again to try and aim around it and stepped in. “I got it,” he said, taking out his own set of daggers. He didn’t even need to try to kill the zombie, just get it out of the way for her. At the same time, killing another zombie was absolutely the ideal result here, so he aimed for the head.

The first dagger hit its mark but didn’t exactly “get it” as promised. The zombie was still standing, barely even phased. The second dagger, though, got the zombie to move forward a little bit before slumping over, revealing the eye behind it. “Now!” Chris said, and Estellise loosed an arrow, striking the eye in its white. The eye wasn’t dead yet, but it wavered, dropping to near the ground and not exactly being quick to rise back up.

Another important point was that Chris could see all that happen. The red mist that had wrecked his head not too long ago was fading. He didn’t dare try and find out if it had lost any of its effectiveness, but he was starting to put the pieces together as to what they were up against.

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Like most days since her adventuring career had started, Lana was not currently having a good day. The zombie had grabbed onto her and, quite the skeletons before it, had something of a powerful grip to its decaying fleshy hands. Unlike the skeletons, that seemed more keen on punching and clawing out her face, this one seemed more poised to just try and eat her. The girl's eyes went wide as it opened its mouth wide and was ready to go bite into where Lana assumed would be her throat; unlike her foot, a very vital part to her continued living. Lana, unable to draw her axe in a timely manner to hack the creature's face off and resorted to a more hands on approach. 

Using both of her hands, the girl grabbed and pushed against the creature's face keeping it at bay and away from her neck though clearly in a losing contest of strength. Needing something more, the girl tried to think of what to do, before she had remembered how she had beaten the skeleton that had put her in a similar situation. The girl brought up her knee and started pushing it the side of the zombie, and through a stroke of luck this also happened to be right into the axe wound she had put into it earlier. Lana's face a mix of disgust and panic, not particularly enjoying the feeling of rotten flesh in her hands or the fact that her knee was going deeper than the surface of the zombie. This mixture then gave way to shock as, through her ridiculously now poor balance she lost her footing and with that basically threw her entire weight against the zombie, shoving it away from her. 

Falling to the ground, hands first, the girl let out a sigh of relief before realizing that she, and her neck, were still in mortal peril. Reaching quickly for her hand axe, the girl awkwardly stood up just in time for the zombie to be back on top of her. Bringing her axe up, the girl pushed with the head of the axe against the creature's face, trying to act as a stop gap between its teeth and her skin. As she continued to struggle against this, she barely noticed a few streaks of light coming in, caving in the zombies skull from the back and making a grotesque popping sound and the barely intact head slid off her axe blade and on to the ground. 

Estelle, after having shot her arrow at the eyeball, had taken note of her surroundings and saw that Lana had been struggling with the undead creature. Not wanting to shoot an arrow into a melee like that, the mage had opted to go into a more reliable approach. Letting loose three missile of force, unerring in their accuracy, the small blasts had found their mark and slayed the zombie. Lana looked over and saw the mage with her hand outstretched, putting two and two together that she had been saved by her noble friend's magic. Letting out a true sigh of relief the girl said, "th-thanks!" Only for this relief to be replaced with more and more dread as she saw that the room was still filled with more zombies and floating eyes. Sheathing her hand axe, the girl walked over and picked up her two handed weapon before getting ready to keep fighting the undead off. 

Edited by Skaia

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The best shot was one that was carefully planned, with a target clear in mind. And Robin definitely had a target in mind. That eye. It had created that mist, and while said mist was now starting to fade thanks to Estelle's efforts, the fact of the matter was that whatever the eye was, it was clearly a greater threat to the party's continued safety than the zombies lurching about in here. And Robin was only going to get one good shot from the relative comfort of invisibility Ziun had provided. Which was why Robin had initially hesitated when Lana found herself face-to-face with a rather hungry-looking zombie. Normally, she'd open fire without a second thought, confident in the ability to hit her target while maybe only slightly grazing her allies at worst. But she wanted her one shot from invisibility to count, and she wanted it to be on that eye.

Luckily, Estelle had things covered, with something far more safe and reliable in these situations than bullets: Magic. Not the explosive fiery kind like Robin used either, which was surely nothing but beneficial to Lana who would have been caught in the blast had Robin interfered with the same methods. Relieved that she could focus on her original goal, Robin raised a pistol, aiming it directly at the eye that had been causing the party some mild inconvenience so far. And then she fired.

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The eye to the north, or what was assumed to be the north, was watching much more intently than ever before. The zombies near it that were meandering seemed to slow their movements and almost come to a halt.

Meanwhile, the zombies the group were facing were being picked off one by one. The last of that area was still heading for Zion's illusion. Once there it tried to attack the illusion, only to stumble through it. The creature lurched back and went after it once more despite its failure. While it seemed this would keep the creature busy for a while it also looked like the illusion was slowly beginning to fade. Being repeatedly touched seemed to make it harder to maintain.

The exact moment that Robin fired on the wounded eye, which tore one last wound through its disturbingly squishy form, and the eye dropped to the ground dead the other one acted.

It fired off a ray of light, looking like the one that had almost struck Lana before, and hit Robin with it. As it did the pirate would suddenly feel weaker, as if their strength had been suddenly sapped from them.

At nearly the same time the zombies near the eye began to shuffle towards the group. Putting them between the group and the eye as they shambled closer.

Spoiler

Zombie 7 is still distracted, but the illusion will not hold forever. Zion is the only invisible one atm, and Robin was hit with a Ray of Enfeeblement, so her physical strength has been reduced.

Map

 

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